What's your best demand generation 30-60-90 day plan to make a big impact at a new company?

I recommend structuring a 30-60-90 day plan with clear timelines and goals. This will look different at an established org versus a start-up. This may also look different depending on the full scope of the role. That being said, let’s dive in:

• 30 days: The first 30 days are about getting to know your customers, colleagues, and processes. “Drink from the firehose” as they say and so do with curiosity. This time is all about deeply understanding the mission, business, and customers. You don’t know what you don’t know. Ask questions and be a sponge.
• 60 days: Start crafting and solidifying your plan, timelines, and the associated desired outcomes and targets. As a growth marketer in demand gen, I take the lens of experimentation. Start defining opportunities for experimentation and documenting what this plan would look like. Start digging into metrics critically. You’ll want to get a lay of the land with dashboards and reporting within your first 30 days, but they most likely won’t start to make sense until you have your footing. Be sure to start formulating your hypothesis, have several conversations cross-functionally, and identify any gaps in tracking and reporting.
• 90 days: Start formulating the impact you are going to drive either as an individual contributor or as a leader. I recommend having a bottoms up perspective and how your plan will ladder up to company goals. Start executing experiments and defining what scale looks like. Be sure to communicate with stakeholders and be transparent throughout the process.

While the fundamentals stay sound, I can speak from experience that my 30-60-90 day plan has looked different at every org I have been with. This shouldn’t be formulated from a cookie cutter approach. The plan must be tailored based on all of the variables of the org and the role. Lastly, I recommend that you start thinking about this early in the process. Approach it with an open mind with a bias towards action.

I'll provide a high-level framework I've used at a few companies, which is not totally unique to me, but has proven very helpful:

First 30 Days: LEARN!!! Products (sit on demos, sales calls, web training), people (primarily your team/relevant stakeholders), process (helpful to know how to get stuff done, plus there are likely areas you'll want to improve at some point BUT don't do that immediately - be patient!), culture, and systems. 

Next 30 Days: start to formulate your initial learnings into insights / action plans. Test this out with relevant stakeholders to course-correct and/or get alignment. So important to do this!

Last 30 Days: GO! Ensure alignment of plan with your manager, and jump in with both feet! Whatever you do, don't try to boil the ocean (trust me, I've tried multiple times) - but do find quick wins - and friends. Find your people - your advocates. Someone you can confide in, someone who has your back, and someone who can continue to help mentor you!

Ultimately every situation is unique, so apply this with a grain of salt. But I've found that you really have a small window where no question is a dumb question - so take advantage of it, and set yourself up for long-term success. I've seen too many folks have a short-term view and want to fix everything or prove themselves too fast and too much without having a true picture of what matters most to an organization.

One last tip - start with the end in mind. Write down a few questions you want to be able to answer at the end of each 30 days, and that will give some focus to how you approach your time.

I have some standard 30-60-90 bullets that I apply to any new role. Roughly, those look like this:

30 days - "Listen and Learn"

• Complete formal onboarding

• Get to know my team/boss/peers

• Schedule introduction meetings with cross-functional peers

• Understand my job description and key responsibilities

• Review current performance data, budgets, and plans

• Understand company long-term goals and strategy and how I fit in there

60 days - "Find the Red"

• Continue with 30 day items

• Dig deeper into metrics, sales performance, customer data, partners

• Understand technical workflows and processes

• Identify key project areas

90 days - "Build and Change"

• Continue with 60 day items

• Build formalized plan and socialize with organization

• Begin implementing needed changes and working on key projects